Joel Santo DomingoHP Firebird with VoodooDNA 803The HP Firebird 803 is one of those "love it or hate it" gaming desktop PCs. Its looks give you a lot to love, but some gamers will be put off by the lack of expandability.

Limited internal expandability. External power brick. No Blu-ray burner option. Its 5,400-rpm notebook-class hard drives are slower than those of the competition.

Bottom Line

The HP Firebird 803 is one of those "love it or hate it" gaming desktop PCs. Its looks give you a lot to love, but some gamers will be put off by the lack of expandability.

HP's purchase of Voodoo has resulted in the past in an Editors' Choicewinning gaming rig, the Blackbird 002, and the Voodoo Envy 133 subnotebook. The latest system to come out of this union is the HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 803 ($2,099 list). A high-powered gaming desktop, it has some unique attributes. For one, the rig's insides have several notebook-like characteristics, including switchable graphicsthe first we've seen on a desktop. For another, its styling is distinctive, yet it has an HP/Voodoo family resemblance. Unfortunately, there are a few issues that could keep it from winning over the hard-core gamer, such as some disappointments with performance and limited upgradability. Still, this is not your father's gaming desktop. And for the more casual part of the gaming market, that's a good thing.

The Firebird is a "closed box" gaming rig. By that, I mean that the upgrade options are limited, rather as they are in a gaming notebook. The twin GeForce 9800S graphics cards are MXM cards, so theoretically, they're removable, but the way the system's liquid-cooling system is positioned prevents their removal. Besides, third-party MXM graphics cards are much harder to find than standard PCIe X16 graphics cards. Furthermore, there are only two DIMM slots, and they're both filled, so you'll need to swap out the existing 4GB of memory if you need more. The rig includes two innovative hard-drive sleds (like the ones on HP's blade servers). They're compact and well built, and should be able to take repeated connect/disconnect cycles, but they're both filled with 320GB drives: One is used for Vista and apps, the other can be used for data. (They're the C: and E: drives, in case you're interested). The system also lacks a set of PCI/PCIe connectors. Sure, you can open the system up and look at the pretty internal components, but they're really all permanently attached except for the memory and hard drives. This system is like a gaming console: You can't upgrade the internals easily.

At least the system is entirely devoid of crapware. It doesn't come with annoying ads or trialware programs, unlike its more typical HP brethren. Only the operating system, HP Total Care (HP's one-year tech support program), a one-year subscription to AVG Professional Anti-Virus, and a copy of CyberLink DVD Suite Deluxe, for DVD and Blu-ray movie playback, occupy the hard drive. I found this a refreshing sight after having waded through so much crapware lately. The system came with a wireless keyboard and mouse, but since I like to use wired mice for gaming, I tested it with HP's new Voodoo-branded keyboard and mouse, which also look snazzier next to the Firebird. The system comes with a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty and a 90-day support warranty for the included software. Like other HP desktops, the Firebird comes with HP's online and phone-tech support offerings.

The Firebird's graphics setup is innovative for a desktop. Thanks to the Nvidia nForce 760S motherboard chipset, you can switch back and forth between the power-saving integrated graphics and the Firebird's two Nvidia GeForce 9800S gaming graphics cards in SLI configuration, the same way you can on notebooks with hybrid graphics such as the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Dual Graphics). When you're surfing the Web or doing other non-strenuous tasks, you can save around 20 watts of power by switching to the Save Power setting in the HybridPower control panel. However, you have to adjust the setting manually by clicking on the control panel (located in the taskbar next to your onscreen clock), which is a bit annoying.

The Save Power mode is good for video viewing, but if you want all of the features in Nvidia's PureVideo HD, you'll need to turn on discrete graphics (aka the Boost Performance setting). You'll want the discrete graphics for running 3D games as well, since the system's 3DMark Vantage score dropped from 19,461 points on the Boost Performance setting to 4,047 points on the Save Power setting. While I understand the need for a setting that lets you manually turn off the discrete graphics in a notebook whenever battery conservation trumps performance concerns, I'm not sure about applying the same logic to a desktop. One assumes that the desktop will have constant power, so the gamer that this system is designed for will never switch the system to the Save Power setting. Or possibly only when her parental unit tells her to "Save Power."

The Firebird has an external 350-watt power supply, so it wouldn't be able to use higher-powered graphics, even if you could find a way to shoehorn them into the case. The external power brick spoils the Firebird's clean lines if you place it next to the desktop, but you can hide it if you want. On the plus side, the power supply is 80 PLUS compliant and 90 percent energy efficient, and since it's external, there's less heat to dissipate, so the liquid-cooling system can quietly work on just the CPU and GPUs. You can hear some fan noise if you put your ear to the system, but the older HP Pavilion m7780n we had running nearby was a lot louder. Power usage was decent. In Boost Performance mode, it was 75W while idling and 122W under load; in Save Power mode, it registered 58W idling and 102W under load. These numbers are lower than those of some value PCs I've tested recently, such as the ZT Affinity 7225Xi.

All this energy saving is great, but how's the performance? Well, the Firebird will stomp all over any gaming laptop on the game grid. It was able to play Crysis smoothly, with a score of 60 frames per second at 1,280-by-1,024 resolution. You can play World in Conflict (WiC) at both 1,280-by-1,200 (66 fps) and 1,920-by-1,200 resolution (31 fps). All three scores are better than those of the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme M1, which was tested at lower resolutions yet was significantly slower on the games (54 fps on Crysis at 1,024-by-768 and 33 fps on WiC at the same resolution). On the desktop side, the Firebird was competitive with the multimedia performanceoriented Dell Studio XPS 435 (60 fps on Crysis at 1,280-by-1,024 and 35 fps on WiC at 1,920-by-1,200). The multimedia test scores were very good: an excellent 45 seconds on the Windows Media Encoder test; 1 minute 26 seconds on Photoshop CS4; and 4,688 points on PCMark Vantage. The Dell is a little bit faster on the multimedia tests, thanks to that system's Core i7 processor, but on the other hand the Dell has more of a multimedia focus.

How does the Firebird stack up against its rivals? Well, it's almost twice the price of our reasonably priced gaming Editors' Choice, the Gateway FX6800-01e, and it's not as expandable. However, the FX6800 feels as if it's made of cheap plastic, while the Firebird is solidly built. The Firebird is a smidge faster on the game grid, but not to a noticeable level. It's closer to the Dell Studio XPS 435 in price and in capabilities, even though the XPS 435 is more of a power multimedia users' system. The XPS 435 also has expansion room and is a little more imposing looking. On the style front, I'd have to give the crown to the Firebird. But the Editors' Choice Dell Studio XPS 435 still wins out as the best choice for the gamer who also needs multimedia functionality, and the Gateway FX6800 still keeps its Editors' Choice laurels as the "bang for the buck" gaming PC.

If you're looking for a "drop on your desk and play" gaming system, then the HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 803 deserves a spot on your short list of $2,000 systems (assuming you have the disposable funds these days). However, you'd better really like the styling and the included components, because you're pretty much locked into what HP gives you. It's a good system, but obsessive-compulsive tinkerers and upgraders should look elsewhere.

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About the Author

Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel e... See Full Bio

HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 803

HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 803

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